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You’ve heard about cats getting stuck in trees. What about a 70-pound German shepherd? Kennel Manufacture
Brian Spies said he hopes his dog Luna has “learned her lesson” after he found her perched at least 25 feet up a pine tree near his home in Lotus, California, on Monday morning.
Luna, who is around 10 months old, had been missing since Sunday at around 8:30 a.m. She usually pals around with two other family dogs outside but this time hadn’t returned, Spies said.
“We basically looked for her all day, driving around the mountain and calling for her,” he said. “We were worried that she was injured. She would be out all night in the cold so that’s why we searched until dark.”
What he didn’t think about was looking up. That’s how his friends Luka Bogdanovich and Jared Johnson spotted her in the tree the next day, around 10:30 a.m. No one ever heard a bark or whimper.
"I'm just driving down the road and look left. I'll be darned. I see something in the tree, and I went, 'Holy cow, that's the dog,'" Bogdanovich said.
Spies said the theory is that Luna was chasing a squirrel “and then realized, ‘I made a ginormous mistake.’”
The pine tree is at an angle but it’s still steep.
“It was an impressive climb and how high she made it up,” Spies said.
Spies, who works in construction, said he brought a 24-foot extension ladder for a rescue attempt. His friends held the ladder and a sleeping bag in case things went awry.
“I had to bear hug her and walk down the ladder with no hands,” he said. “We felt like firefighters.”
Spies explained that Luna was tired Monday after being rescued, but she is now back to her normal, playful self. Spies also said he has learned a lesson from Luna's adventure.
"If she ever gets lost again, we'll look up, because she can climb trees," Spies said with a chuckle.
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